


The Adventures of Babysitting

by Mae01



Series: Marauders Modern AU [15]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Best Friends, Established Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, F/M, Fanfiction, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Friendship/Love, M/M, Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Modern Marauders (Harry Potter), One Shot, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter Friendship, Remus Lupin Needs a Hug, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:00:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29207010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mae01/pseuds/Mae01
Summary: Wolfstar Babysits Harry; James and Sirius learn something about Remus’ childhood.“Wow…That’s really sad...”“James!” Lily yelled. “Be nice!”
Relationships: Harry Potter & James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin & Harry Potter, Remus Lupin & James Potter, Remus Lupin & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Harry Potter, Sirius Black & James Potter, Sirius Black & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Harry Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Harry Potter & James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & James Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Marauders Modern AU [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138295
Comments: 1
Kudos: 55





	The Adventures of Babysitting

**Author's Note:**

> This is a stand-alone work. There are other stories in the universe, but you do not need to read other stories to understand this one.
> 
> I do not own any Harry Potter characters all characters belong to JK Rowling.

“Thank you both so much for watching Harry tonight. We will be back in a couple of hours.”

“Of course, Lily! You and James need a night out. Sirius and I will put him to bed and make sure he is all good before you come home. Please, go have a good time.”  
Lily and James had not had a night out in months. She loved being a mother, she really did. But not going on dates as often with her husband had been quite difficult for her. When she had told Remus this on one of their lunch dates (with Harry, of course), he had told her that he and his husband would watch Harry that Saturday night so that she and James could have a night to themselves. Today was that Saturday and Lily was feeling guilty about taking away Remus’ and Sirius’ free evening by having them babysit. Remus, however, was not having any of it and told her that they were more than happy to babysit. With his last comment, Lily reluctantly left and joined her husband in the car before waving as they drove off.

“Okay, Harry. What should we do this evening? Your Uncle Padfoot is making you some dinner and we have 20 minutes before it is ready. Would you like to go and build a tower with your blocks?” Harry was 18 months old but ever since he was born, Remus had talked to him like he was an adult. James and Sirius would constantly mock him for it, but Lily found it endearing. Remus had grown up being forced to be independent and seemed to not have much of a childhood. Remus had never heard his parents ‘dumb things down’ for him and that was what he was used to. When he was a little bit older and he would talk to children with a softer and more silly tone, his parents would get mad at him and reprimand him. Because of this, he grew up talking like he was talking to an adult with all children. It wasn’t that he was cold or distanced from the children, but he learned to show his love to the child in different ways than using, as Sirius and James would say, ‘baby talk.’ Lily found it endearing and because she was okay with it and understood why he talked like this, she even encouraged Remus in continuing to talk to her son like he was an adult. 

“Yeah,” came Harry’s reply. Remus and Harry played with the blocks until Sirius had called them for supper and they went to go eat. The evening was filled with laughter and fun, Harry had always loved playing with his uncles and sometimes found them to be more fun than his parents. As the clock hit 7:00 pm, Remus started to clean the house as Sirius started to get Harry ready for bed.

“Alright, Prongslet,” Sirius said. “Let’s get you ready for bed, huh? Do you want your bunny pyjamas or your spider man pyjamas?”

“Bunny!”

“Alright, little man, let’s get you ready for bed!” Sirius continued talking and singing to Harry as he got Harry ready for bed. He used silly voices and funny faces, making Harry laugh and squeal. This was the routine Remus and Sirius would do when they put Harry down for bed. Remus would clean while Sirius would read Harry stories and got him to bed. Sirius was the one between the two of them that would use silly voices when reading, Remus had never been read a story with funny voices nor had read a story in funny voices. It just made sense for Sirius to read the stories and they never changed that. The only reason James or Sirius had never asked Remus about why he never used ‘baby talk’ when talking to Harry (even when he was a newborn) was that Lily had told them not to question it or to try to get Remus to change. She said that it would be a story for Remus to tell when he decided to (without telling Remus that she had told them not to).

“Alright, Moony!” Sirius yelled down the stairs. “Do you want to come and say goodnight to Harry before I start the story?”

“Sure, I’ll be up in just a moment.”

When Remus walked into Harry’s room, he was greeted with the very adorable sight of Sirius sitting on a rocking chair with a blanket wrapped around him and Harry while Harry was curled up into Sirius’ chest. There was a children’s book in Sirius’ freehand and the only source of light in the room was a little lamp beside the rocking chair.

“Have a good sleep, Harry,” Remus said while placing a soft kiss to his nephews’ forehead. “I will see you tomorrow when I come over for lunch with your mother. Sleep well.” With that, Remus placed a quick kiss on his husband’s cheek before leaving the room and going to sit in the living room. All the cleaning had been finished and now all he had to do was wait for Sirius to finish the story and for James and Lily to come home. Remus could hear the soft mumbling of Sirius reading the story, but tuned it out as he closed his eyes and leaned back on the couch. Remus had always refused to listen when someone was reading Harry a bedtime story. He wasn’t jealous, per se, but if he didn’t listen then he wouldn’t know what he had missed in his childhood. Without hearing a story being read with silly voices, Remus had no reason or ground to be jealous on. As many say, ignorance is bliss.

When Remus heard Sirius coming down the stairs, he heard the front door open as well. Talk about perfect timing. Standing up, Remus when to greet his friends as they came home from their first night out for a long time.

“Hey,” Lily said. “How did it go? Would you both like to stay for some wine?”

“Sure,” Sirius replied. “We don’t have anything planned for this evening anyway.”

James and Sirius made their way to the couch as Remus helped Lily carry the wine and wine glasses to the living room.

“Were you forced by Harry to read him a bedtime story with silly voices? He is always super excited when you read to him in the funny voices.” James asked Sirius, not noticing the pointed look his wife gave him.

“You better believe I did,” Sirius responded. “Moony didn’t stay and listen, not that he ever does though.” Sirius didn’t mean for it to come out rude, but the gasp from Lily had indicated that he had crossed a line.

“If you will excuse me for a moment,” Remus said quickly placing his wine glass down and standing up. “I’m just going to use the restroom.” As soon as Remus had left the room, Lily was quick to scold the two men sitting in front of her.

“Really? You had to add that to your answer? Sirius! You know what I said about addressing that!”

“Lily, I didn’t mean for it to come out that way!”

“You shouldn’t have even said anything about it! I told you to never bring it up, let alone joke about it!”

“Lily,” James started trying to save his brother from his wife’s’ wrath. “It’s hard to not say anything when we don’t know why we aren’t even supposed to bring it up. We didn’t think and we didn’t mean to do that. And you can’t blame just Sirius, I opened the can of worms.”

“I am not blaming just Sirius! I was going to start on you next! Would you both just think for a second before talking?”

As Lily continued to scold the two men about hurting her best friend, Remus was standing just out of view in the other room listening to what was said. He had known Lily had said something to James and Sirius at some point, but he didn’t know that she hadn’t explained why not to mention anything. He also knew that Sirius hadn’t meant to hurt him, but it did hurt him and that wasn’t Sirius’ fault. Well, he thought, I guess I’ll have to explain at some point. I might as well get it over with. Walking back into the room and sitting down beside his husband, he felt the tension in the room which only made him feel worse.

“Moony,” Sirius started.

“It’s fine, love. Don’t worry about it.”

“But-”

“Sirius, please. Just, in the most loving way possible, please shut ut. I’ll explain what’s wrong with me.”

“Remus John Lupin-Black!” Lily scolded. “There is nothing wrong with you!”

“Lily, we both know that isn’t true. I am probably the only person in the world who doesn’t talk to a child, let alone a child they love, in a normal child voice.”

“You don’t have to explain if you don’t want to, Rem,” Lily said, accepting that she wasn’t going to win this argument.

“James and Sirius deserve to know. You two ready to hear another bad story of my childhood?” Remus questioned while looking at the very confused and slightly worried faces of his friends. “And please, Sirius, know that I am never and will never say that my childhood was worse than yours. Yours was a nightmare and I don’t want you to think that-”

“Remus! I know, I know what you mean and I’m not going to think that. Tell us what happened.”

As Remus dived into his story, he watched as James’ and Sirius’ faces grew sadder and sadder as well as angrier and angrier at his apparent childhood joy getting smaller and smaller. Every time Remus shared a story from his childhood that involved his parents, James and Sirius got sadder at his lack of good childhood memories. By the time he finished the story, Lily was looking at him with sympathy but also looked proud that he had finally told his other best friends. James and Sirius, however, looked like they were ready to break something in anger but also ready to curl up in a blanket and cry.

“You… you have never heard a bedtime story?” James said as he finally got over the shock.

“Nope, besides in school when the teachers would read but that wasn’t very often.”

“And you never had anyone read to you in a silly voice?”

“No, never.”

“So why have you never listened to Sirius and me whenever we read a story to Harry?”

“Because, Prongs, ignorance is bliss.”

“Care to explain?” Sirius questioned.

“If I don’t hear a story read in silly voices, then I never knew what I missed as a kid.”

“Wow…That’s really sad...”

“James!” Lily yelled. “Be nice!”

“I’m being honest! Anyways, I’m sorry that we bugged you about it and I’m sorry you never had that part of your childhood. I guess it all makes sense how you talk to Harry and that Lily defends you and says you are loving in your speech...”

“I’m sorry as well, Moony,” Sirius said. “I’m sorry for poking fun at you.”

“Oh no, please don’t be sorry you two! Really, I’m fine with it all. I’ve come to terms with it all.”

“Remus,” Lily interrupted, “Just say thank you otherwise this will never end.” With a quick thank you, the group of friends dived into a different topic. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, but when Sirius and James had been told about the story, it seemed to be for the better. Eventually, Sirius was able to get Remus to listen to him read Harry a bedtime story and it quickly became one of Remus’ favourite part of babysitting Harry. He would never read a book in a silly voice or talk in a ‘baby talk’ voice, but he loved listening to the stories. He had come to terms with how he spoke to children and how he read a book in a monotone voice and he found it normal and made a way to communicate his love for the child through that. Listening to James and Sirius read books in funny voices though? Remus never thought he would ever get enough of it.


End file.
